Kuleba claims Ukraine could easily have broken the relations with Russia during the annexation of Crimea, prior to the beginning of the conflict in Donbas, essentially when there were no Ukrainian poitical prisoners in Russia.

The Ambassador-at-Large added that current diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Russia have been brought to a naught. Kuleba says the two countries only work in the Normandy format and during the Minsk contact group, at the present moment there is no other cooperation.

Dmytro Kuleba reiterated that if the relations were to be completely severed, the Ukrainian diplomats would not be able to visit Nadiya Savchenko [Ukrainian pilot convicted to serve 22 years in Russian prison] or Mykola Karpyuk [currently on trial in Russia] in court.